Leaders are vital to the creation and maintenance of great places.
Sometimes they need to put down a clear marker for what will, and will not, be acceptable in terms of quality and character. At other times they may need to support colleagues and officers to achieve their best. And sometimes, unfortunately, they may need to give people a forceful nudge to get things done!
Leaders may be councillors, chief officers, heads or mangers of companies, consultants, government organisations or partnerships. Wherever they sit, a true leader will leave their mark, and will hopefully be proud of the difference they have made.
Leaders can make a difference in lots of ways – but at UDL we believe that they are vital to the quality of our built environment. We also think that leaders will reap tangible rewards, in the short and longer term, from influencing development to make places better.
So we are offering a special programme to support leaders. It is not a big programme, but we hope you find it useful. Events will be held at exemplar built schemes and introduce you to leading experts. They will also give you the chance to meet each other and discuss common issues and solutions.
Leaders Briefings: 27 June 2012, 7 November 2012, 13 March 2013
Design diagnostic
There are a number of ways your organisation can help ensure it will achieve good design. These might relate to your processes, resources and or skills. We are happy to sit down with you and discuss how things work at the moment and suggest one or two actions you may like to take forward to ensure that design quality is addressed.
Roadshows
Please remember that we can come to your offices to give short presentations on key issues for your councillors and/or staff. For example TfL have funded a Better streets roadshow which consists of an hour long session explaining the principles and stages of intervention behind creating more balanced, successful streets. As a leader you may like to ensure this or other roadshows are delivered in your organisations.
Design surgeries
You may find these a useful alternative to setting up your own design review panel, or you might like to try one out to see how useful your organisation finds peer reviews of schemes. As a design leader please feel free to come along and observe a session, or encourage your teams to bring schemes along to be seen.
